7 August 2017

Dates for Your Diary

22 Aug - Parent/Carer Coffee Meeting

23 Aug - Book Week Celebration

Principal’s Award

Sofia received the Principal’s Award for

being a safe, respectful learner

Principal’s Message

Welcome back to Term 3. Students and staff

returned rejuvenated, ready for other busy

term ahead. This term we look forward to

Education Week and Book Week

celebrations and the annual formal reviews.

Visiting Lucas Gardens School

At Lucas Gardens School we seek to provide

an open and friendly learning environment

which values and actively encourages

visitors to our school. We seek to create and

foster strong partnerships

with families, community members and

services, with a view to opening up our

learning facilities by providing opportunities

for all key stakeholders to witness our

programs and students’ progress. At the

same time, we recognise our duty of care to

ensure a safe environment for students and

staff of Lucas Gardens School. To support

this, it is valuable to know that entering a

school site is a privilege and interactions and

behaviours between students, staff and

community members are to be respectful and

productive for the benefit of our students, at

all times.

School Development Day

On Monday 17 July, all teaching staff

attended the Special Education Conference

in Parramatta. This gave teachers the

opportunity to connect with colleagues and

attend workshops relating to student

learning. School Administration and Support

Staff participated in wellbeing workshops

starting with Tai Chi in the Sensory Garden

and concluding with an inservice on

Resilience and Wellbeing in the Workforce.

I was very fortunate to showcase our new

school to the staff from Drummoyne Public

School. They were very impressed with the

Lucas Gardens School Celebrating Ability Through High Expectations

Cnr Queens Road & Walker Street Canada Bay NSW 2046

Ph: 9744 6461 Fx: 9744 1705 Email:lucasgarde-s.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Close Circuit Television (CCTV)

As disclosed at our school entry and in line with

current schools facilities standards, please be

aware that CCTV monitors our school premises.

layout of the school and the amazing work

samples displayed around the classrooms.

After the tour, the staff from Drummoyne

Public School continued their professional

learning session in our Multi-Purpose Space.

NAIDOC Week 2017

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across

Australia in July, to celebrate achievements,

culture and history of Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander people. We celebrated, with a

special assembly led by Daryl Hood and the

school captains, Patrick and Christopher. A

special performance from PIE productions

concluded the celebrations.

Celebrating NAIDOC week

Last week, Denise, Sienna and I accepted a

kind donation from Canada Bay Club. This

donation will help fund an additional staff

member to support the students in the

hydrotherapy program. We wholeheartedly

thank Mr Douglas Kirkham and his team for

supporting our programs.

Mr Kirkham, Denise, Sienna and Jenny

Education Week 2017

“I Learn, We Learn”

Last week we celebrated Education Week. It

was wonderful to see DoE staff, families and

friends honouring us with their presence.

Students showcased their wonderful work in

the classrooms and their impressive art in the

Art Exhibition ‘Transition’.

Thank you to the staff for your hard work and

to Bec Stark, our Visual Art teacher, who

highlighted student’s artwork in such a

unique way.

Focus on Learning

I would like to thank P3 for inviting me to view

their unit of work on the Solar System. It is a

very impressive display!

Please be aware now that we have settled

into our new school, we will be revising our

procedures, processes and guidelines over

the next six months. You will be receiving

requests to support us with paperwork and I

thank you in advance for your input to ensure

student wellbeing is at the forefront of all we

do.

Kind regards

Jenny Zagas

SRC Report

The last Friday of Term 2 saw students and

staff in ‘comfy mode’ for our Annual Pyjama

Day.

This year, as well as wearing our very stylish

pyjamas, our school community contributed

tinned food to the Exodus Foundation Winter

Drive. They gratefully accepted our generous

six crates of food.

This day reinforced the importance of giving

and I would like to thank our students,

families and staff for their kind donations and

for supporting this SRC initiative.

Denise SRC Coordinator

Library

Hello everyone and welcome to Term 3 in our

wonderful new Library!

We are busy already, completing the 2017

Premier’s Reading Challenge. Data is still

coming in from classrooms across the school

and the number of books read keeps climbing

and climbing! I think we will do very well at

the ‘Challenge’ this year!

In Library, we started this term with a very

funny book called ‘The Story of the Little Mole

who knew it was None of his Business’.

In Week 2, the Primary classes were

spellbound with a lovely book of stories and

rhymes.

P1 loved this one A Little Mole

The Secondary classes revisited an old

favourite of ours and a book very close to our

hearts: ‘Feathers for Phoebe’ by Rod

Clement. Quite a few years ago, some of the

now Secondary students performed in a

stage play version of this book and were

delighted as they remembered what fun it

was!

An old favourite!

That’s the news from the Library! Bye for

now!

Daryl

Secondary 2

We would like to give a warm welcome to S2

students as they start an exciting new term

with new classmates and teachers.

Term 3 will be a busy term with lots of

learning. For English, we are continuing with

narrative writing and we are looking at news

articles. Students will be given opportunities

to explore different themes such as sports,

entertainment, weather, and current affairs.

We plan to analyse the articles by identifying

the 4Ws - Who, Where, When and What.

Students are also going to re-write the article

based on the important information they have

gathered.

Bianca completing our 4Ws chart about the

news article ‘Sunglasses at School’

Jayson ‘proof reads’ the news article we have written as a class

In mathematics, we are learning about ‘time’.

Our focus this term is creating and

understanding ‘schedules.’ Students will

learn to associate time with activities – both

at home and at school. The use of visual

schedules will be incorporated throughout the

day to maximise learning experiences.

Katherine identifying an activity

at 7 o’clock in the morning – breakfast

Isaac learning about our morning schedule

before we go to school

We are all looking forward to an amazing

Term 3 full of fun and learning.

Nicole, Daryl and Penny

Primary 4/Secondary 2

It is with much excitement that we welcomed

back Clare and Sehal, as well as their new

classmate Andrew.

Andrew looking very smart in his Lucas Gardens School uniform

Andrew has settled in very well and has

adapted to our class routine quickly. He is

enjoying our amazing facilities and is quickly

learning everyone’s names.

Our class program this term will cover a

range of interesting topics and involve a

variety of practical activities. In English we

will be consolidating the student’s

comprehension and writing skills, through the

dissection of individual news articles. Each

student will reproduce a news article that is

differentiated and broken down into Who,

What, When and Where information

categories. These articles will later be

classified according to subject areas and

specific students will be responsible for

reporting on areas of personal interest; sport,

entertainment, etc.

Students will also be participating in ‘pattern’

related learning experiences during maths

lessons and extend this knowledge to

practical situations in the creation of sound

and art patterns.

Clare enjoying an interactive ‘Pattern’ game

In science lessons students will be

investigating ‘renewable and non-renewable

resources’ and will consolidate this

knowledge through the practice of recycling

materials during the term.

The students are very excited to be

continuing with the Hydrotherapy and Music

Programs, as well as exploring different

genres of dance, in terms of music and

movements.

Sehal actively participating

in the music program

Congratulations to Andrew for receiving our

first class award for the term. Andrew

demonstrated a high level of engagement

during all English and mathematics lessons.

Well done Andrew!

We look forward to continuing our class

programs and engaging our students in a

variety of learning experiences throughout

the term.

Rosie and Nobuko

Primary 1

Welcome back after a lovely mid-year break.

The students in P1 are already hard at work.

Our science focus this term is: ’What is it

made of?’ Students will explore a range of

materials and classify them according to

some of their visual and tactile properties. We

have already looked at see-through and non

see-through objects as well as things that are

hard and soft. We have explored the

classroom and labelled certain items

according to these properties. We found that

the windows are both see-through and hard,

although the cushions are not see-through

and soft.

Lily discovers that the book is

not see-through

Malayka explored the meaning of see-

through

In mathematic lessons we are doing data

handling whereby the students sort materials

according to the properties that we explore in

science and then answer questions about the

size of the groups.

Maheen sorted the see-through and

non see-through objects into categories

We are focussing on dance in PE this term.

Students have enjoyed exploring a number of

music genres to determine which music they

prefer. They have had fun moving their limbs

and whole bodies to the music. We will be

working on moving in time to fast and slow

music as well as copying simple sequences

of movements.

Ali and Malayka enjoyed dancing together in

our PE lesson

Pauline, Bec and Vicki

Primary 2

This term, students will be participating in an

integrated unit of work of English and

geography to explore Australia.

For modelled reading, the students have

been exploring Aboriginal dreamtime stories.

Our reading goal for this Term is for students

to construct meaning from texts and improve

their comprehension skills. As the text is

being read, students use props, objects,

symbols, materials and visuals to make

deeper connections with the text. After the

text is read, students engage in

comprehension activities, for example,

sequencing the story using visuals and

images, highlighting the main characters in

the text and sorting images that are a part of

the story from images that are not part of the

story.

For modelled writing, students have begun

writing information reports on Australian

animals. As the students are constructing

their reports they learn about what the animal

eats, the size of the animal, describe the

physical features of the animal and identify

where the animal lives.

Harry is using the prop of a Kangaroo to

connect with the text is it being read

Cara and Jayden are using materials to feel

the fur of Australian animals as the text is

being read

Juliette and Reham are identifying Australian

animals they saw in the text

Ayse and Denise

Primary 3

‘I learn, we learn’ was the theme for

Education Week this year. It was wonderful

to celebrate the learning and achievements

of our students with them and their families.

We are proud of our class nook, which

includes our models of the solar system and

a display of our work on space.

‘I learn, we learn’ – evidence of learning –

Education week 2017

This term, we are learning about ‘Built

Environments’ and have been exploring the

concept of building. The students have

engaged with a variety of different

construction materials to make a building. We

have been distinguishing between built and

natural environments by selecting between

photos, using symbols and by using ‘Choose

it Maker’ on the Commbox. We have begun

our study of a local built environment – our

school. We have been identifying key areas

within the school and this week we followed

a map to locate a chosen environment within

the school.

Morgan constructing a tower to explore the

concept of ‘built’

Pierre distinguishing between built and

natural environments

Class Primary 3 would like to extend our

thanks to Boston University students Kayla

and Lexi who supported our programs and

made such positive contributions during their

time at Lucas Gardens School. We wish them

the best of luck for their future.

Sofia working with Kayla

from Boston University

Wendy, Daryl and Jenny

Secondary 3

The start of Term 3 welcomed Luke and

Jacob into our class. Education Week Open

Day and the Art Exhibition was our first

official event this term, whereby the students

showcased their academic achievements

and creative talents. Student projects

included a collection of personal story books.

Christopher’s book titled, Have you seen my

whistle? sees him on a quest to find his

missing toy. The story incorporates language

of time and place, emotions and feelings into

verses and choruses that rhyme.

A page from Christopher’s story: ‘Found it’’

Paddy’s book titled, My very noisy week,

engages with his emotions, senses and the

environment around him as he tries “to find a

quiet place to rest his sleepy head”.

A page from Paddy’s story: ‘Too noisy here’

Likewise, Muhamad’s sees a young man

learning to communicate his wants and

needs with the help of his friends, using his

picture exchange communication system

(PECS). The story engages the reader with

its clever rhyming scheme and illustrations.

A page from Muhamad’s storybook

Lina’s story, ‘I want work please’, showcases

her learning of concepts in her subject areas.

Her book uses opposites to highlight her

understanding and participation in a range of

learning experiences demonstrated in her

facial expressions and use of language in

context.

A page from Lina’s story, ‘I can be happy...’

This term during English, we will be studying

news articles by exploring media literacy from

newspapers, news and sports reports

broadcasted on television and radio. In

mathematics, they will be learning about

time, reinforced by their personal timetabled

schedules and routines. In science, we will be

investigating the sources and impact of

renewable and non-renewable energy. In

society and culture, students will be engaging

with popular culture through art mediums

from Aboriginal rock carvings to modern day.

In PDHPE, our class will be participating in

hydrotherapy and dance as well as a

balanced lifestyle, including nutrition.

Diane, Toula and Antoinetta

Assisted School Travel

What are my responsibilities as a

parent/carer?

Be ready 15 minutes before the pickup and drop

off time.

Wait outside your home for transport.

Help your child into the vehicle, ensure your child

is safely seated with seat belts fitted according to

the road rules.

Provide an Australian approved child restraint or

booster seat where appropriate (AS/NZS 1754).

Provide additional equipment if required for safe

travel such as seat belt buckle covers, specialised

transport harness and any medical equipment.

Assist travel staff in loading and securing your

child and their mobility equipment such as

wheelchairs and walkers.

Communicate any additional needs your child

might require whilst on transport, to the school

and travel staff.

Be present at the drop off point to meet the

vehicle

Call the driver and the school if your child is going

to be absent from school.

Email the school if your details or circumstances

change such as work commitments, address or

phone numbers.

Email address:

lucasgarde-s.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Subject Heading - Variation

Speak with the school if your child’s health needs

change.